SHANGHAI – Mexico’s small and medium-sized enterprises will find it easier to sell their products in China after Mexico and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday as part of the Mexican president’s visit to China.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto visited the Alibaba headquarters in the city of Huangzhou in eastern China, where he and the company’s founder Jack Ma – considered the richest man in China – witnessed the signing of the document.

“Alibaba is one of the world’s largest technology companies with a sophisticated e-commerce ecosystem and a remarkable reach of more than 500 million active annual consumers globally,” Pena Nieto said in the statement.

Under the memorandum of understanding, Alibaba will promote Mexican products in China, provide help to Mexican companies wanting to sell in China through e-commerce and encourage Chinese tourism Mexico, according to a statement by Alibaba.

Alibaba will also “provide training in the kinds of analytics that have driven consumer insight and product innovation in the Chinese market.”

“By partnering with Alibaba, we can expand Mexico’s export options in China and Asia more broadly, while enhancing Mexican SMEs’ knowledge of e-commerce and cross-border trade,” Peña added.

The process for the memorandum of understanding started in May during Ma’s visit to Mexico, where Ma had met Peña Nieto to discuss the role of technology in economic development and competitiveness.

“Alibaba is committed to inspiring, motivating and enabling SMEs from around the world to grow and thrive through e-commerce and the use of technology,” said Ma, adding that such agreements help development in both countries.

The main objective of Peña Nieto’s China visit was to participate in the Dialogue of Emerging Markets and Developing Countries, held on Tuesday on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, which took place in Xiamen, southeastern China.

In his speech at the forum, Peña Nieto talked about the need to step up international cooperation for development, defend free trade and strengthen rules-based multilateral trade.

During the Mexican president’s four day visit, he also met Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in separate meetings.

Enter your email address to subscribe to free headlines (and great cartoons so every email has a happy ending!) from the Latin American Herald Tribune: